VOY: “Scientific Method”

Date: November 16, 2020

Season 4, Episode 7

Musical Accompaniment: “In The Forests of Tamriel” by Jeremy Soule

Interstellar News: Today I organized a lot of stuff and it was glorious. I also ate a lot of yummy food. There was no terrible weather, guess it got everything out over the last few days.

TL;DR: Torres and Paris have been making out all over the ship, but are caught by Tuvok and reprimanded by Janeway for their indiscretions. Voyager encounters a binary pulsar and Janeway has been having some terrible headaches. An unknown force is shown scanning the ship, Chakotay and Neelix have their genes manipulated, and strange things start happening around the ship. Torres and the Doctor find something that isn’t supposed to be on the DNA, almost like a barcode signature… but then he is deleted and Torres is also attacked. The Doctor is actually hiding in the holodeck and interacts with Seven to find out what’s going on, and she finds aliens that are out of phase and doing all kinds of experiments on the crew. Seven makes one of the aliens visible and Janeway interrogates them. She decides she doesn’t want to be a lab rat and plays chicken with the aliens as she sends Voyager right into the path of the binary pulsars. The aliens leave, Voyager makes it through, and everyone’s conditions get reversed except for the one crew member that died. Paris and Torres have a date night, and it’s super adorable.

Favorite Quote:

Torres: Right, then we’re agreed. Just a little more careful in public and we don’t say anything to anybody.

Paris: At least for now.

Torres: Now? Sounds like you see a future in this.

Paris: I would never be so presumptuous.

Torres: Smooth recovery, Lieutenant.

Paris and Torres being adorable in the turbolift, right before they’re torn to shreds by Janeway.

“Shall I flog them as well?”: This is a wonderful episode in so many ways. It picks up on the Torres/Paris romance that has been building up for some time and it’s mystery after mystery that we’re introduced to. First, it appears that someone is watching Paris and Torres… which winds up being true but it’s not another member of the crew. Then Chakotay, Neelix, and others get sick in weird ways but it’s not due to the pulsars, or is it? When Torres and the Doctor get close to realizing what’s going on, they’re both taken out, or so the aliens think. The EMH is able to think on his feet and tap into Seven’s Borg enhancements in order to try and save the ship. Seven does her best to not react to the aliens she sees, but eventually they catch onto her. The aliens believe they are doing what is right for the good of the many, and of course it has to be a blind study otherwise the participants might skew the results. They are so impressed with Janeway that they keep poking and prodding her worst of all, but the captain is a woman of great restraint. The one thing that really gets me, though, is how Voyager didn’t get ripped to absolute pieces as it traveled through the pulsars. I’m also enjoying the verbal sparring that happens between everyone in this episode, especially when Tuvok and Janeway are discussing the crew and when Torres and Paris are talking to each other. 8 pieces of crumbly crumb cake for this episode.

TA Out!